A forum dedicated to the protection of nature has united manufacturers and ecologists

The 7th Ecological forum was held in one of the northern Russian cities - Murmansk on 15th and 16th of November. Nornickel, a Russian mining and metallurgical company, was the organiser of the event.

Bellona, being an independent non-profit organisation, which works towards attaining a better ecological understanding, was used to criticise the Murmansk region of Russia quite aggressively in the past. However, over the course of time, the situation in the region has changed. The initiatives taken by Kola GMK, a subsidiary company of Nornickel, were aimed at achieving a fast ecological recovery in the Murmansk region despite its challenging location in the north.

If Finland’s fertility rate remains at the current record-low level, the under 15-year-old population will decline to an estimated 760,000 by 2030, according to Statistics Finland. (Credit: Roni Rekomaa – Lehtikuva)

Finnish economists have expressed their deep concerns about the latest population forecast for Finland.

Statistics Finland on Friday reported that the country’s population is expected to grow, driven by immigration, until it reaches 5.62 million in 2035, before starting to shrink and declining below the current level in the 2050s.

An employee assisted a customer with their breakfast in an elderly care facility in Pähkinärinne, Vantaa, on 23 October 2018. (Credit: Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)

Finland Chamber of Commerce has called for the abolition of the so-called labour availability consideration for employees arriving in the country from outside the European Union and European Economic Area (EEA).

The process allows authorities to cite the availability of domestic labour as grounds for preventing employers in certain sectors from hiring from outside the EU and EEA.

Mounted police officers on patrol at Senate Square in Helsinki on 20 October 2018. The Finnish Police Federation (SPJL) has voiced its concern about the lack of police resources in Finland. (Credit: Martti Kainulainen – Lehtikuva)

The Finnish Police Federation (SPJL) has urged the next government to increase investments in internal security.

“It is an unfortunate fact that response times to calls to emergency call centres have increased. Police officers are unable to respond to 100,000 emergency calls a year and, when it comes to crime, are unable to investigate petty offences,” a spokesperson for the federation stated in a press release on Thursday.

A citizens’ initiative demanding that rape be re-defined as non-consensual sexual intercourse will be presented for parliamentary consideration after the elections held on 14 April 2019. (Credit: Jussi Helttunen – Lehtikuva)

A citizens’ initiative demanding that non-consensual sex be recognised as rape has received the 50,000 statements of support required for presenting it to the Finnish Parliament.

Hanna-Marilla Zidan, one of the two sponsors of the initiative, reveals that the initiative will not be submitted for parliamentary consideration until after the next elections, due to lack of support in the current Parliament.

Petteri Orpo (NCP), the Minister of Finance, says the shadow budgets unveiled by opposition parties fail to answer the most pressing question in Finland: how to sustain the current economic and employment growth? (Credit: Antti Aimo-Koivisto – Lehtikuva)

The shadow budgets unveiled over the past couple of weeks by opposition parties fail to acceptably answer the most pressing question in Finland: how to sustain the current economic and employment growth, views Petteri Orpo (NCP), the Minister of Finance.

“The biggest mistake would be to put an end to the economic and employment growth by making notable tax cuts,” he stated in the Finnish Parliament on Wednesday.

A pregnant woman in Helsinki on 31 July 2018. The total fertility rate is expected to continue to fall in Finland, with preliminary statistics showing that the number of births dropped by over 2,000 year-on-year between January and September. (Credit: Emmi Korhonen – Lehtikuva)

The total fertility rate is set to continue its decline in Finland.

Statistics Finland has reported that the fertility rate fell to an all-time low of 1.49 children per woman last year as the number of births dropped to 50,321, its lowest level since the third and last year of the famine of 1866–1868, when the country had a population of no more than 1.75 million.

Jussi Halla-aho, the chairperson of the Finns Party and Member of the European Parliament, has urged all EU member states not to join the so-called global compact for migration, an intergovernmental agreement prepared under the UN. (Credit: Jussi Nukari – Lehtikuva)

Jussi Halla-aho, the chairperson of the Finns Party and Member of the European Parliament, has expressed his strong reservations about the so-called global compact for migration (GCM), an exhaustive agreement on global migration prepared under the auspices of the United Nations.

Halla-Aho said in the European Parliament on Tuesday the GCM is “a misguided and dangerous” document that offers no solutions to tackling immigration and urged all member states not to join the declaration.

“Finland is a more ordinary member state than it is perhaps willing to concede,” concludes a report on the country’s reputation in the European Union by the European Policy Centre (EPC), an independent not-for-profit think tank based in Brussels.

EPC on Tuesday pointed out that although the country has for years encouraged a narrative of itself as a constructive, unconditionally pro-integration member of the 28-country bloc, the narrative is not necessarily reflective of its domestic efforts to, for example, contribute to and benefit from the single market.

Finns have rushed to express their support for a citizens’ initiative to abolish the diesel tax, with the price of diesel exceeding that of 95-octane petrol at some service stations in the country. (Credit: Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)

Timo Heinonen (NCP), a third-term Member of Parliament from Häme, told Uusi Suomi on Tuesday that he is supportive of the idea of abolishing the diesel tax.

Helsinki’s casino and gambling scene has always been fairly limited compared to many other major European cities such as London, where casinos are an established part of the party scene. The first independent establishment, Casino Helsinki, did not appear until 1991. It is run under Veikkaus, a non-profit organisation with all the proceeds going to charity and social projects through RAY. Veikkaus also runs the national lottery and arranges a football league.

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Helsinki Times is the very first leading English language publication in Finland established in 2007, covering Finland related news on daily basis. A weekly print edition of Helsinki Times was published from March 2007 up until Feb. 2015.

At the moment Helsinki Times is an online only publication. Readers are mainly expats, diplomats and other international individuals, businesses and groups residing in Finland. Visitors are also tourists, individuals and businesses interested in Finland from all around the world.